Results tagged “Angkor Wat” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Guarded by giant seven-headed serpent gods high on an obscure mountain, in backcountry disputed by Thailand and Cambodia, is an ancient sacred site that's not on the regular tourist map.

 

Surrounded by landmines and bunkers from the Khmer Rouge era, and still caught up in today's border disputes, Preah Vihear, or "Holy Monastery," is a mysterious place few westerners have been able to visit.

 

Jon Ortner, photographer and author of the book "Angkor, Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire," shares his first encounters and impressions of the thousand-year-old sanctuary in this essay of words and photos composed especially for NatGeo News Watch.

Photographer:  David Dunai of San Francisco and Budapest

Getting the Shot:  This photo was taken at Angkor Wat in the jungles of Cambodia on a warm day in January.  
 
Details:  Initially, I was drawn to photograph the temples by themselves to represent the isolation of these ancient ruins in the middle of the jungle and show the otherworldly character of the structures built by a civilization long gone.

That however, turned out to be impossible as there was not a square inch free of my fellow tourists. So I changed my approach and decided to go for the quirky by juxtaposing these modern wanderers against the background of the ancient, massive palaces. When I spotted these two Chinese visitors in their fantastic tropical hiking outfit I could not stop clicking the shutter.

We Love: The juxtaposition of colorful, slightly surreal elements.  Despite its unarguable value as a cultural icon, Angkor Wat scored very poorly in stewardship in our 2006 World Heritage Destinations Rated.   

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